Quote of the Day:

“If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.” –Jack Handy

As I drove home from the office yesterday evening I passed by a football field with the lights ablaze. The scoreboard was running, counting down the minutes left for pregame warmups. I felt a pulse of adrenalin and a twinge of excitement and reflected briefly on it. Certainly the junior high teams meant nothing to me; I didn’t even know who they were. It was the scoreboard itself, seeming to impart energy to all among its purview. A football stadium full of people and even competitors is but a shell. The scoreboard brings it all to life, the heart of the enterprise.

This random deep thought sent me scrambling to the Google to find the literary term for giving human qualities to inanimate objects. Personification. Should’ve known that. Somewhere Mrs. Halbrook must’ve felt a disturbance in the force at my poor retention of her lessons from 11th grade.

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Is anyone wondering where the Top 40 on TB’s college football list is? Anybody? Anybody? Bueller? It’s coming soon, hopefully this weekend. Then I’ll bring them all together somewhere for easy access. In case you were wondering.

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I read this article today from “The Hill.” According to the Pentagon the military pays $400.00/gallon for gas in Afghanistan. That figure is arrived at by counting the transportation of the fuel there, security and other underlying costs. For every 1000 soldiers sent, the cost is 1 Billion dollars per year. 40,000 troops = 40 billion dollars per year or if we measure it by the decade like health care is being scored, that’s 400 Billion, assuming gas doesn’t go up. Does the expense play in to your opinion or consideration of the cost-benefit analysis of staying there? It makes me want to have a better idea of the benefits of keeping a visible presence vs the risks of leaving. I’d like to at least know what we are paying for and whether there is a reasonable chance we will receive the security we seek to purchase.

Another statistic from the article–the Marines use 800,000 gallons of fuel per day. Just in Afghanistan. I’m not criticizing their usage nor endorsing it since I have no basis to do either. But that is a stunning number. 800,000 x 365 = 292 billion gallons per year.  It doesn’t even take in to account the Army, Navy or Air Force’s usage.

Bonus QOTD–

“If you’re in a war, instead of throwing a hand grenade at the enemy, throw one of those small pumpkins. Maybe it’ll make everyone think how stupid war is, and while they are thinking you can throw a real grenade at them.”     —Jack Handy

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One thing that gives me a charge from the tunes I dig the most is hearing a perfectly crafted line. I was listening to some Robert Earl Keen tunes today as I cruised back up to work, past the lifeless football field. In “Walkin’ Cane” is the line “I’m gonna leave on the mornin’ train; my sins, they have overtaken me.”  Man, I can see that dude in the song when I hear that line as clearly in my minds eye as if I was standing right by him. And I can almost see those big ol’ heavy, jagged edged sins coming after him, foiled by the train’s exit from the station; temporarily foiled at least. Personification. That technique really works. I need to remember it.